An easy-to-follow recipe for establishing your own potato flake sourdough starter from scratch. It also includes details on how to maintain your starter, from feeding to refrigerating.
While some sourdough starters use wild yeast from the air, this potato flake one requires active yeast in the beginning. The added yeast gives the starter a boost and speeds up the process significantly.
What’s pretty cool about it is that you can establish your starter in just a few days and bake from it daily once it’s ready. Check out our potato flake sourdough bread recipe for a great first recipe.
If you aren’t up for baking in the next day, you can refrigerate the starter once for up to 5 days. You’ll need to take it out, feed it and eventually remove discard. After that, you can decide again whether to leave it out or put it back in the refrigerator.
I was always very intimated about maintaining a starter, but it’s actually pretty easy once you start doing it. You just need to remember to feed it as needed, whether it’s daily or every few days from the fridge.
Potato Flake Sourdough Starter
A simple recipe for establishing your own potato flake sourdough starter from scratch.
Ingredients
Initial Feed
Additional Feeds
You’ll need this amount each time you feed your starter.
Tools Needed
- Glass jar and lid
- Wooden spoon
Directions
Make Your Starter
- Combine ingredients in a clear glass jar and stir with a wooden spoon
- Place lid on the jar but don’t seal it shut. Just leave it resting on top.
- Stir with a wooden spoon every morning for 5 days.
- Feed your starter on the fifth morning (1 cup warm water, 3 tablespoons of sugar and 3 tablespoons of potato flakes.)
- Remove 1 cup of starter that evening. You can bake with this or discard it.
Maintaining Your Starter
This section includes directions for maintaining your starter. Your starter either needs to be discarded from and fed daily or it can be refrigerated for up to 5 days at a time. If you choose to refrigerate, you will still need to feed and discard it once a week.
After discarding 1 cup of starter, decide whether you plan to bake from it or if you want to refrigerate it. If you want to keep baking from it, jump to the directions below. If you want to refrigerate it, just pop it in the fridge after pulling a cup of discard for up to five days. You’ll then need to feed it using the directions below.
- Feed your starter with 1 cup of warm water, 3 tablespoons of sugar and 3 tablespoons of potato flakes. Leave it on the counter until it begins to bubble (at least six hours.)
- Remove 1 cup of discard from the starter once it is bubbling. You can either bake with it, gift it to a friend or throw it in the trash (not down your sink!)
- After removing the discard you can either feed the starter again or refrigerate it for up to 5 days before you need to feed it again.
- If you chose to keep it out, feed and discard daily. If you chose to refrigerate it, remove from the refrigerator after 5 days. Feed it, let it rest until bubbly, remove a cup of discard and then you can decide again whether to feed or refrigerate.
